Tag Archives: Lockheed

Joan Lowy (@AP_Joan_Lowy), Associated Press. This piece offers a great overview of what many see as the dawn of a new era of development of civilian unmanned aerial vehicles, drones as they are called these days. Lost in the news on privacy violations and air strikes are the incredible opportunities that these systems can offer to a range of industries according to representatives from groups as varied as police chiefs to organic farmers to realtors. But since January it’s been a tide of negative backlash as the anti-drone forces have been making their cases in towns like Seattle where…

Tony Capaccio and Gopal Ratnam, Bloomberg. The F-35 loses 13 aircraft in the new budget proposal while other systems also face cuts or slow downs to save costs on the acquisition budget. Capaccio and Ratnam have a good view of the various pieces in the budget that was received with some skepticism on Capitol Hill this week. Of course, the biggest cuts will come in personnel for the Army and Marines tied with raising the fees for current retirees and their healthcare.

John Bennett, U.S. News and World Report DOTMIL. Secretary Panetta took a trip out to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland to meet the folks working on testing the F-35 Lightning series of aircraft and announced he plans to lift the “probation” on the F-35B set by his predecessor. Sighting great progress in the last year bringing the Vertical Takeoff version of the aircraft in line with its sister models, Panetta gave a major boost to the embattled program and the Marine Corps’ hopes for a replacement for its aging jet fleet.